The Thir13enth Ghost: Legacy
by Magdalena Iris Roth
Summary: (The third and final story to my series) The Ocularis is being rebuilt and this time it shall open! But the only two people who can stop it must first accept their fate before all hope is lost! [Please read the first two stories before you read this one!]
1. Chloe

  
  


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The Thir13enth Ghost: Legacy  
  


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By: Magdalena Iris Roth  
  


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James Madison High School, New York:  
  
Tuesday, September 25, 2018  
  
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Chloe stared out the third floor window of the high school, she was in the guidance councilor's office. As she focused her attention on the rising sun and the dew covered grass, she felt peaceful for a moment, of course it was shattered by the sound of Ms. Moore trying to make contact with her.  
  
"Chloe, have you been sleeping better?" the councilor asked the daydreaming girl.  
  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, it's been better." Chloe muttered.  
  
"So no more bad dreams?"  
  
"Well, there've been dreams, just not bad ones. Not like the ones I did have..." she said trailing off.  
  
"Look, I know you're growing tired of all this therapy, but what you did really was-"  
  
"Really was what? It was an accident, I've told you all that a hundred times! Besides, it was three years ago!" Chloe said in anger, interrupting Ms. Moore.  
  
"Was trying to kill yourself an accident too?" the councilor asked concerned.  
  
Chloe remained silent, covering her wrists with the long sleeves of the gray sweater she wore.  
  
The bell suddenly rang in the hallway next to them.  
  
"Well, time for class... please try to have a good day." Ms. Moore begged.  
  
"Sure." Chloe sighed with annoyance.  
  
The girl got up from the seat by the window, her long dark auburn hair falling around her face, not knowing whether it wanted to be straight or curly. She grabbed her backpack, slinging it over one shoulder as she walked to the door.  
  
"Oh, and Chloe..." the councilor whispered, the girl turned towards her as she opened the door. "Happy Birthday."  
  
*  
  
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" 'The Autumn wind swept through her curly hair as the crimson fluid dripped across the cold concrete like liquid rubies, her tears seemed to be made of the same blood that now flowed from her fallen friend's chest...' " the short red head narrated from the paperback book in her hand to the thin boy at her side as they stood by the lockers.  
  
"Wow, now that... is deep!" the lengthy boy added as he filled his blue backpack with heavy books from his locker. "When did she publish it?"  
  
"2006" the red haired girl said, looking at the back cover of the book for the date.  
  
The girl with short curly red hair, Ellie, adjusted her round silver framed glasses as she found her place in the novel. The tall, thin boy, Zeke, continued to rummage through his messy locker, trying to find his books for class.  
  
Chloe walked down the hallway, in search of her locker and friends, when she found them, her face became solid white.  
  
"What are you reading!?!" Chloe asked Ellie and Zeke in a furious tone as she caught sight of the book.  
  
"Uh... me, I'm not reading anything... you know I never learned to read..." Zeke mumbled, nervously looking through his backpack.  
  
"Not you!" she scolded, looking at Ellie.  
  
"Uh... I was just..." the red head stalled, hiding the book behind her back.  
  
"Give me it!" Chloe shouted, holding out her hand as her dark teal eyes lined in black stared at her evilly.  
  
"God! Sorry for living!" Ellie whined, handing over the book to the angry brunette.  
  
Chloe took the book, glancing at the cover, which read 'The Thir13enth Ghost by Evelyn Rafkin'. She turned and started to walk down the hallway, away from the lockers, her friends followed.  
  
"What are you wearing?" Ellie asked her, referring to the old gray sweater that was two sizes too big, which Chloe was wearing.  
  
"Its cold out." Chloe muttered as she walked ahead of them.  
  
"Yeah, weird weather we've been havin' huh?" Zeke shrieked as he managed to keep up with the two girls.  
  
"Yup, September twenty-fifth, and it feels like winter! Well... fall anyway." Ellie said in her sweet quiet little voice as she pushed her glasses up on the bridge of her nose.  
  
"It's hell's winter outside..." the brunette muttered emotionless under her breath.  
  
"Can I have my book back, please?" the red head questioned eagerly.  
  
"No... why do you want to read this anyway?" Chloe wondered, looking down at the book.  
  
Because it was the New York Times best seller four months in a row, not to mention the writer is on the Best Selling Authors' List of horror!" Ellie convinced.  
  
"Yeah, that was like over twelve years ago!" Chloe argued, throwing the paperback book in the nearest garbage can as she entered her first period class.  
  
"Hey! That cost me eight bucks!" Ellie whined, Zeke reached his long arm into the trashcan, pulling out the book and smiling as he handed it back to the little red head.  
  
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"I know it's been almost a month since the first day of school, but I still don't know some of your names." The teacher echoed over the full classroom. "So when I call your name, raise your hand and tell me if you have a nickname you would like to be called by."  
  
Chloe sat in the desk next to Ellie and Zeke, she stared at the wooden desktop in front of her obliviously.  
  
"Andrea Adler, Josh Alden..." the teacher called as Chloe daydreamed.  
  
"God! I hope she doesn't say my whole name!" Zeke whispered as he laid is head on the desk.  
  
"Don't be ashamed, it's a nice name..." Ellie encouraged him, cleaning off her book.  
  
"Ezekiel Lawrence." The teacher called.  
  
"Zeke!" Zeke said loudly as he raised his hand, the teacher wrote down what he wanted to be called. "God! What was my parents smoking when they named me!?!" he whispered, annoyed.  
  
"Eleanor Owens." The teacher echoed.  
  
"Ellie." The red head said, raising her hand.  
  
The teacher continued calling the students' names, Chloe continued to stare off into space.  
  
"Chloe Rafkin." the teacher called... no answer. "Chloe Rafkin!" she called louder.  
  
"Huh?" Chloe muttered as she came back to reality, the class began to laugh hysterically.  
  
"Miss Rafkin I would prefer if you stay coherent in my class." The teacher scolded, Chloe nodded. 


	2. Who's Dennis Rafkin?

Prague, Czech Republic:  
  
September 25, 2018  
  
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The loud metal shrieked against the silence of the cold air. One by one people flocked to steady the swaying glass cell that moved above their heads, swinging back and forth by the strong metal cables that secured it into place.  
  
"Damn this weather!" the brunette muttered in aggravation as she pulled her sweater-like jacket around her shivering arms. "Damn this country!" she then added, her British accent attractively lingering with every word.  
  
"How can you hate Prague?" the black haired girl at her side questioned distractively, her accent the same as her friend's.  
  
"I don't know... I just do!" the brunette replied awkwardly.  
  
The black haired girl only shrugged as she peered around the wasteland that surrounded them through the electronic screen of her digital camera.  
  
"There..." she mumbled in awe, pointing at the dried blood on the dead grass ahead of them.  
  
"Yeah, what about it?" the brunette dismissed.  
  
"I bet someone was torn to shreds there..." the black haired girl uttered jadedly, she then pressed the button on her camera several times and the area on her viewfinder was illuminated by a strobe of flashes.  
  
"You are so damn weird its not even funny!" the brunette sighed in revulsion as she watched the girl closely.  
  
"What ya mean?" the girl asked offhandedly as she continued to scour the area for more bloodstains.  
  
"What do you mean what do I mean! You keep a photo album full of pictures of dead people and bloodstains! Not to mention all those articles you've saved on murders and gross accidents!" the brunette exclaimed in horror as she slowly made her way towards the group of people in reflective jackets.  
  
"Hey, one of these days my sick obsessions will come in handy." The girl answered.  
  
"When in the bloody hell will something like that come in handy?" the brunette barked, just then someone interrupted her.  
  
"Lydia! Get over here now, I need you!" an angry female voice called to them over the loud cries of the machinery, which lied ahead.  
  
"Right now, that's when!" the black haired girl said quickly before running towards the sound of the woman's voice.  
  
"You too Nicki!" the woman added.  
  
"Oh great, now what does she want to yell at me about!?!" the brunette sighed as she followed Lydia towards the commotion.  
  
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"Get out your electrical mumbo-jumbo and tell me what's going on before we're all sliced to bits!" the woman demanded as the black haired girl quickly fumbled through the mess of electrical devices she carried in her satchel.  
  
Lydia quickly turned on one of the handheld scanners, immediately it began to make noise.  
  
"Anything?" Nicki asked as she walked up to the black haired girl, glancing over her shoulder at the mechanical device in her hand.  
  
"It detects heat signatures over there, and in this weather it has to be something hot..." Lydia noted as she waved the scanner towards the vacant area to their right.  
  
"Look at that! The temperature of whatever it is is almost seventy degrees and climbing!" Nicki gasped as her eyes darted back and forth between the area and the scanner. "Most spectral entities put out cold air... this one has to be powerful!"  
  
"Yeah, well its growing more powerful by the minute, so lets hurry this up!" the woman informed them.  
  
Lydia handed the scanner to Nicki then began to rummage through her satchel in search of something else.  
  
"Now what are you looking for?" Nicki wondered.  
  
"This..." Lydia mumbled, pulling a camera out of her bag. "It can read heat signatures..." she explained while turning the camera on.  
  
She held it up in front of them, she then pointed it towards the area to their right.  
  
"It's gone!" Lydia shrieked, a touch of disappointment in her voice.  
  
"No its not..." the woman told them in distraction, her American accent standing out in the midst of their British ones. "It's moving... put on your viewers and tell the guys to get ready." She advised, her tone remaining casual as everyone else became worried.  
  
The woman walked away from them towards the vacant area, her shoulder length brown hair moving slightly in the chilling breeze. She removed a strange pair of glasses from her coat pocket, she put them on then suddenly retreated from the area.  
  
"Now! Now would be good!" the woman screamed almost in a panic to the men that stood at the makeshift control board.  
  
Quickly the men flipped at the large switches on the control panel, the doors to the glass prison slid open.  
  
The two girls put the viewers on their faces as fast as they could, suddenly they saw what the woman was running from.  
  
"Serena! Hurry quick!" Nicki shouted to the woman in fear.  
  
The woman ran towards the glass cube when she then realized she was no longer being chased, quickly she turned towards the two teenage girls who were now being pursued.  
  
"Run!" she called to the girls frantically, Serena then turned towards the men who stood at the controls and began to run in their direction. "Goddamnit, turn on the spells!" she barked before knocking them down.  
  
The men fell to the ground in shock as they watched the two girls scream while they ran to the cube for safety, Serena hastily pressed the transmitting button, Latin was then heard throughout the field. The girls fell to the side just as the glass doors slid shut behind them.  
  
"That... was... close..." Lydia struggled to gasp out of breath, Nicki only nodded.  
  
Serena marched over to the two girls in fury as she stared into the cube, she then reached down and helped the girls to their feet.  
  
"We need a new system, this electronic detection crap doesn't work fast enough!" Serena announced, glancing around at the workers who quickly fumbled to put the equipment away.  
  
"Well what else is there?" Nicki mumbled in dismay.  
  
"Yeah, I mean how did you used to detect ghosts back then?" Lydia question as she fastened the strap on her satchel.  
  
"First off don't say 'back then' like I'm five hundred years old! And second off we never used all that high-tech bullshit to find ghosts!" Serena spat, walking away from the cube as the girls closely followed her.  
  
"Then what did you use?" Nicki asked curiously, Serena paused to think.  
  
"Dennis Rafkin..." She answered before continuing her stride, the girls stopped walking and stared at each other in confusion.  
  
"Who's Dennis Rafkin?" Lydia asked Nicki in bafflement.  
  
"Hell if I know!" Nicki responded just as lost as she was. 


	3. Different

Author's Note:  
  
Hola boys and girls!  
  
This is, as I'm sure you have already figured out, the third series to The Thir13enth Ghost. It is mainly centered around the daughter of Dennis and Evelyn Rafkin, and Serena's ghost hunting gang's misadventures in the 'family business'. But rest assured, there will be no dismissal of Dennis, Evy, the glass house, or any of the twelve ghosts. So don't worry... this is still a Thir13en Ghosts fic. And how could I even begin to leave out Dennis... there would be no movie without him! So sit back, relax and enjoy the Legacy!  
  
~ Magdalena Iris Roth  
  
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"Have you seen my gray sweater?" Dennis asked Evelyn as he ransacked the hall closet.  
  
"No, why?" she said distantly, staring at the screen of the laptop in front of her.  
  
"Its cold out." He said bluntly.  
  
"I meant why can't you find it?" Evy muttered with distraction. "Where did you last put it?"  
  
"I put it right there, but now... its not there!" he said with stress in his voice, pointing at the empty hanger in the closet.  
  
"Calm down, I doubt it just sprouted legs and walked out." She assured him.  
  
"I don't know, with all the crap I've seen in my lifetime... I wouldn't be surprised if it did." He sighed.  
  
"Its almost 3:30, I wonder why she isn't home yet?" Evy mumbled as she glanced at her watch, just then the phone rang.  
  
Dennis walked over to where the telephone was and picked it up.  
  
"If it's a lawyer saying we've inherited something tell him to fuck off!" Evy added.  
  
Dennis gave her one last curious glance before hitting the TALK button on the ringing phone.  
  
"Hello?" he asked into the receiver, "It depends on what she's done..." he said apprehensively.  
  
"Oh great! Now what did she do!" Evy whispered to herself as she took of her reading glasses.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be right there..." Dennis sighed, hanging up the phone.  
  
"What?" Evy questioned, he only looked at her inconclusively.  
  
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The car pulled up to the school parking lot, Dennis stepped out and walked towards the entrance of the large brick building. As he entered the school he made his way to the only room he was familiar with in the entire building, the principal's office.  
  
"She's in there..." the secretary said callously as she gestured towards the conference room.  
  
As he moved closer to the door, Dennis heard the almost too familiar sounds of his daughter trying to talk her way out of whatever mess she was now in. He opened the door and sighed with aggravation at the sight of her, ringing wet.  
  
"I know this looks bad, but it really isn't!" Chloe said to him quickly.  
  
"Your daughter decided to take a shower with all of her clothes on at 2 o'clock today!" the Football coach said angrily.  
  
"Why is he here?" Dennis asked the principle, wondering what the boy's football coach had to do with his daughter.  
  
"It was the boy's locker room that she decided to shower in." the principal said calmly.  
  
Dennis whined with irritation as he rubbed his eyes.  
  
"The girls locker room was locked, okay!" Chloe shouted at them.  
  
"Why in the hell were you showering anyway!?!" the coach asked her furiously, Chloe only sulked down in the chair, her arms folded across her chest.  
  
"Get up." Dennis said wearily, Chloe grabbed her backpack and got up from the chair. "Come on, let's go before you find another way to embarrass yourself before the days out!" he sighed as they left the room.  
  
"I don't get it, why do you do this, why?" Dennis asked her as she sat in the passenger's seat of the car. "I mean do you enjoy making a fool out of yourself? Now Zeke I would understand, he was practically raised by a television, but you? Why?"  
  
Chloe remained silent as she stared out the window, her hair and clothes dripping wet.  
  
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Dennis slammed the door behind them as they entered the house. Evelyn walked into the living room where they stood, she almost laughed at the sight of her daughter, but then she caught a glimpse of the seriousness on her husband's face.  
  
"Well, look on the bright side... at least you found your sweater." Evy mumbled, Dennis looked over at Chloe and realized she was wearing the sweater he had been searching for... it was drenched.  
  
Dennis shook his head at both of them.  
  
"Chloe, why did you take a shower for no reason?" Evy asked her.  
  
"Don't forget the fact it was the boy's locker room!" Dennis spat with anger.  
  
"I had my clothes on!" Chloe commented bitterly.  
  
"Well, that makes things all better then doesn't it!" he shrilled, rubbing his temples tiredly.  
  
"It was a bet." Chloe answered in defense. "Candice bet ten bucks that I was too chicken to shower in the boy's locker room."  
  
"So you just had to prove her wrong, huh?" Dennis asked, his anger still not subsiding.  
  
"Did you even know it's my birthday today!?!" she asked him cruelly.  
  
Dennis didn't even glance up at her.  
  
"I did!" Evelyn exclaimed, raising her hand in a childish manner, trying to break up the argument.  
  
Dennis looked over at her annoyed.  
  
"So its my fault now?" he asked.  
  
She sighed at his pessimistic nature.  
  
"Look, just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you can..." Evy began to say.  
  
"Can what? Its not like you two have any say in my life, you barely even know I exist!" Chloe shouted, she then ran to her room in anger.  
  
"Better get her, she might try to kill herself again." Dennis muttered as if he didn't care, even though he truly did.  
  
"Yeah, well it wasn't my bottle of painkillers in the first place!" Evelyn argued, she then left the room.  
  
"Great, now it's my fault!" Dennis said to himself as he sat alone in the living room, still rubbing the side of his head.  
  
*  
  
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"Chloe?" Evy asked as she stood at the closed door.  
  
Chloe walked over and opened the door to her mother.  
  
"What!" she demanded.  
  
"Its not his fault he forgets things..." Evy said as she walked into her daughter's room.  
  
"Oh yeah? Then who's is it?" Chloe asked smartly as she shut the door behind her.  
  
"Your father has a lot on his mind with all the..." she trailed off.  
  
"What?" Chloe asked.  
  
"Dennis is gonna kill me for telling you, but what the hell! You need to know sooner or later, so why not now?" Evy uttered, talking more to herself than Chloe.  
  
"Know what?" Chloe asked confused.  
  
Evelyn looked over at her remorsefully, this wasn't going to be easy to explain.  
  
"This family is... different..." Evy said slowly, trying to think of what to say.  
  
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know!" Chloe commented, Evelyn only looked at her with even more remorse. 


	4. Outside Assistance

London  
  
September 26, 2018  
  
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"Have you found it yet?" Nicki asked again with more impatience then before.  
  
"Almost, keep your trousers on!" Lydia barked back as she typed away at the computer in the somewhat crowded public library. "Here's something..." she then muttered as she glanced over the screen.  
  
"What?" The brunette at her side wondered, now staring at the computer screen as well.  
  
"March 15, 1995..." Lydia read the date from the newspaper article in front of them. "After three terrifying months the women of New York City are finally at ease with the recent capture and conviction of the serial rapist/murderer who has been identified as Charles Walburn. When questioned about the tactics used to identify and capture the suspect, the NYPD disclosed to us that the usage of psychic investigator was a key element in their arrest. 'This operation never would have gone down successfully if it hadn't been for the help of Dennis Rafkin, who used his talents to find specific clues and information we never could have gained on our own!' Detective Reilly of the 9th Precinct informed us after the arrest was announced." Lydia paused after reading the last line out loud.  
  
"So he is a psychic!" Nicki exclaimed quietly.  
  
"Listen to this..." Lydia continued. "When asked to speak with us Mr. Rafkin refused an interview and denied when we asked if our photographer could take his picture." She finished.  
  
"I guess he wasn't a people person." Nicki muttered.  
  
"Yeah, well that's all I could find..." Lydia sighed.  
  
"Try the obituaries... do a nationwide search..." Nicki pressed.  
  
"Nothing... I guess he's still alive..." Lydia replied after the computer's search was complete. "I wish there was someway we could find out more..." she said in dismay.  
  
"I think I know a way... but its risky, not to mention a long-shot!" the brunette responded in contemplation.  
  
"What will we have to do?" Lydia asked reluctantly.  
  
"Just make a phone call..." she answered gravely before standing up from her seat.  
  
"To whom?" Lydia questioned, more lost then ever before.  
  
*  
  
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"Hello?" the man asked as he answered the telephone in the large office- like room.  
  
"Is this the Motherhouse in London?" Nicki hesitantly asked the man on the other line.  
  
"Yes..." he managed to say before she interrupted him.  
  
"Oh, good... I was afraid I had called another branch..." she sighed in relief.  
  
"Not to be rude Miss, but how did you get this number... it is highly unlisted!" the man fussed back, his tone still polite as ever though.  
  
"I'm looking for Wilhelmina Townsend..." Nicki told him, the man paused.  
  
"I'll put you through to her room..." he answered finally, Nicki sighed deeply with relief.  
  
"Why so worried?" Lydia asked the brunette as she stood next to the phone.  
  
"I'm not supposed to have this number..." Nicki whispered as she waited for the person on the other line to pick up.  
  
"What, are you callin' Buckingham Palace or somethin'?" Lydia remarked smartly, Nicki only rolled her eyes at her response.  
  
" 'Ello?" someone said on the other line finally.  
  
"Will? It's me, Nicki... remember from Cambridge?" Nicki asked the girl.  
  
"How could I forget... that bloody boarding school is printed indelibly on my mind!" Wilhelmina replied lightly. "So, what's up with you mate?"  
  
"I need your help with something actually..." Nicki muttered reluctantly. "Can I drop by?"  
  
"Sure, I doubt they'll sick the dogs on ya right away... just be sure and bring a box of biscuits with ya when ya come!" she answered sarcastically.  
  
"Will do!" Nicki laughed before hanging up the phone.  
  
Lydia glanced at her curiously.  
  
"We're in!" Nicki then alerted her, Lydia only shrugged unknowingly.  
  
*  
  
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Nicki tapped at the brass doorknocker on one of the two large wooden doors before her and Lydia.  
  
"They're not gonna answer..." Lydia muttered smugly. "And ya know why? Cuz this place doesn't exist!" she shrieked tiredly.  
  
"Shhh!" Nicki warned her. "It does too! Just not to the public... or idiots like you!"  
  
"Hey!" Lydia whined in offense.  
  
Nicki then noticed the small white button next to the doorframe, she reached over and pressed it curiously.  
  
"May I help you?" blasted a female voice from the box beside them.  
  
Nicki held down the receiver button and spoke into it.  
  
"We're here to see Wilhelmina Townsend." The brunette announced, suddenly they heard a buzzing sound.  
  
"Enter..." the woman over the box insisted.  
  
The two girls entered the large stone building, once inside they noticed a metal plaque by the doors.  
  
"The Talamasca, Investigators of the Paranormal... We Watch, And We Are Always There..." Lydia read aloud quietly, her voice low with shock.  
  
"Told ya it existed!" Nicki smarted to her with a cleaver smile, Lydia only nodded dumbfounded.  
  
They passed through another pair of doors, only to find the largest library they had ever laid eyes on.  
  
"Bleedin' Christ! It would take five lifetimes to read all these books!" Lydia gasped as she stared at the many books that lined the walls from floor to ceiling.  
  
"Only two actually..." a female voice corrected from behind them.  
  
The two girls quickly turned around to face the person who had spoken, Nicki immediately recognized her.  
  
"Will?" the brunette inquired as she looked the girl over, her straight dark red hair shining like fire in the well-lit room.  
  
"Nicolette?" the red head responded, Nicki nodded, the two then hugged one another.  
  
"Its good to see you again..." Nicki began.  
  
"Yeah, I haven't seen you since our freshman year when you were expelled!" Will interrupted with joy.  
  
"You were expelled?" Lydia asked Nicki curiously.  
  
"Actually I ran away first, then I was expelled!" the brunette clarified with a smirk.  
  
"Who's this?" Will questioned with a glance towards Lydia.  
  
"This is Lydia Marks, she's a mate from work..." Nicki trailed off.  
  
"You mean the work your-" she began.  
  
"Yeah... that work..." Nicki quickly interrupted, Wilhelmina only nodded slightly.  
  
"What can I do for you?" Will then asked happily.  
  
"I need you to find out what ya can about this person..." Nicki explained, handing her a piece of paper with a name written on it.  
  
"What do you mean?" the red head inquired.  
  
"You know... look 'em up in the files and all..." Nicki whispered back.  
  
"You know I'm not supposed to mess with the files, they're confidential to apprentices!" Will replied, glancing around cautiously.  
  
"Exactly what do you do here?" Lydia asked the red head suddenly.  
  
"I'm a researcher." She answered proudly.  
  
"What type of research?" she pushed.  
  
"The unmentioned type!" Will told her with a dark stare, Lydia then grew quiet.  
  
"Please Will... I'm up against a brick wall here..." Nicki begged her. "We're heading off to the States this Friday, I need all the info I can get!"  
  
"Well alright, just don't tell anyone I did this, okay?" Will gave in finally.  
  
"I promise... thanks!" Nicki assured her, Will only smiled weakly and placed the piece of paper in her pocket. 


	5. Arson ALaMode

Chloe quickly flipped the locks on her bedroom window, unlocking it, she then lifted it upward until it couldn't be opened any wider.  
  
"Damnit!" she sighed with defeat. "I remember this window being a lot bigger when I was seven!" she mumbled to herself as she grabbed her bag of clothes off of her bed before climbing out of the window.  
  
*  
  
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*  
  
The doorbell rang as Ellie made her way down the staircase towards the front door. She casually opened the door to her friend who stood before her annoyed.  
  
"You're late." Ellie acknowledged as Chloe entered the house.  
  
"I'm grounded!" she corrected the red head.  
  
"Was it the bet?" she asked as she followed Chloe up the stairs.  
  
"Yeah... of course if it wasn't that it would have just been something else, you know I can't do anything to please them!" Chloe complained as she laid her bag on Ellie's bed.  
  
Just then a clanking sound was heard from outside the room's only window.  
  
"Greetings and Salutations!" the tall boy announced as he climbed through the open window with the assistance of a latter.  
  
"Why do I feel like I'm in a Clarissa Explains It All episode?" Chloe sighed as the boy toppled into the room.  
  
"Zeke!" Ellie scolded him. "Why can't you use the door like everyone else?"  
  
"Its bad luck!" he answered foolishly. "What's Clarissa Explains It All?" he then asked innocently.  
  
"Just some really old show my mom and her friend used to watch... way before our time!" Chloe dismissed.  
  
"Then how do you know about it?" he asked while struggling to close the window.  
  
"I don't know, I just do... wait..." she paused to think. "How do I know about it?" Chloe thought about it harder then finally shrugged it off. "That's weird, I don't think I've ever seen it but I know all about it... mom's only mentioned it once though..." her voice trailed as she talked to herself.  
  
"Where are we going tonight... and please don't say to that stupid party to see Sean!" Ellie muttered tiredly.  
  
"Just for a few minutes, I haven't seen him in weeks!" Chloe told her.  
  
"Well that's what you get for dating a guy in another school!" she added.  
  
"Its not my fault! There aren't any cute guys at our high school!" Chloe whined in defense.  
  
"Sean's a jerk!" Zeke announced suddenly, Chloe gave him a dark stare.  
  
"What?" the brunette questioned sternly.  
  
"He is..." Zeke trailed off fearfully at her glance.  
  
"Whatever, I gotta get ready!" she said finally, walking towards Ellie's bathroom with her bag of clothes.  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
The car pulled up to the large four-story house, the two girls quickly exited the vehicle as the lanky boy struggle to shut off the transmission.  
  
"Zeke, when are you gonna get up the nerve to ask your parents for a decent car!" Chloe fussed as he finally turned the motor off.  
  
"I told you! They don't ask me to live up to their expectations, I don't ask them for anything!" he spat back, slamming the door on the driver's side shut, it almost collapsed from its rusty hinges.  
  
The two girls eyed the broken down car curiously, then turned their glance towards Zeke.  
  
"Oh yeah! Now that's a fair deal if I ever heard one!" Ellie commented sarcastically, Chloe only rolled her eyes at them before walking towards the house.  
  
Teenagers crowded the once lavish rooms and hallways of the home as plastic cups toppled over the hand carved oak tables and cheap beer stained the Persian carpets beneath their trampling sneakers. Chloe made her way into the living room, carefully pushing her way through the mobs of partying students as she neared one of the chairs at the far side of the room.  
  
Sean sat slouched in the large chair, sipping idly at his cup of beer as the brunette approached him suddenly, he glanced up at her slowly, a smile crossing his face as she returned the expression.  
  
"Hey beautiful!" he muttered to her as she sat down on his lap.  
  
"I missed you." She answered gleefully as she wrapped her arms around his neck.  
  
He clasped his hands around her waist as she leaned in and kissed him on the lips, moving her hands from around his neck to his cheeks. As she held his face suddenly she caught a faint glimpse of something she could barely make out, yet it was all she needed. Chloe's eyes shot open as she pushed him away gradually, breaking their kiss, she leaned back and looked him in the eyes curiously, he only returned her inquisitive stare.  
  
"What?" Sean asked in confusion.  
  
"Where were you last night?" she questioned sternly, the blonde boy beneath her quickly became unusually nervous.  
  
"I was... I was here..." he staggered to explain.  
  
"I tried to call you three times..." Chloe answered unimpressed.  
  
"I was sleeping..." he responded uneasily.  
  
"Yeah... with Miranda!" Chloe hissed at him angrily, hopping off of his lap in almost an instant.  
  
"What? No I wasn't!" Sean shouted back in his own defense, obviously lying.  
  
"I saw it you son of a bitch!" she cussed back, the others around them suddenly began to snicker amongst themselves.  
  
Sean only stared at her in utter confusion, wondering to himself how she could have seen them together when they were the only ones in his room the night before. Chloe reached over and grabbed a nearby glass off one of the antique oak tables, she glanced down at it for a moment, she then proceeded to pour the glass of whiskey onto the very expensive carpet she was standing on. Sean glared at her in shock before finally coming to his senses enough to speak.  
  
"You dumb bitch!" she spat at her, his mouth agape as he stared down at the now spoiled rug. "Do you know what my parents will do to me!?!"  
  
Chloe's expression became even darker as she watched him fuming, how dare he break her trust and then call her a bitch! Without even thinking she quickly snatched a lit cigarette out the boy to her right's mouth, she put to her lips and took two puffs off of it before meeting Sean's overwhelmed stare again, she then dropped the flickering cigarette onto the wet spot of the carpet.  
  
Everyone in the room let out a shocked gasp as the carpet in front of the cheating boy burst into flames, Chloe only grinned a faint smile of pleasure before turning and exiting the living room. As she forcefully slammed the front door on her way out of the house she could still hear Sean's girl-like screams as he panicked to rip down the curtains and put out the small fire, which had now moved to the chair he was sitting on earlier.  
  
"Uh... now what?" Zeke nervously asked as he and Ellie followed the brunette to his car.  
  
"Now... we get drunk, what else?" Chloe answered emotionlessly as she opened the driver side door and got in. "Gimme the keys." She then demanded, Zeke quickly tossed the car keys to her out of fear that she would set his car on fire if he did not appease her.  
  
"You can't drive!" Ellie squeaked as she stood by the curb. "You don't even have a permit!"  
  
"Ellie..." Chloe said to her friend, now flashing her the same dark stare she had given Sean only minutes before. "Either get in, or walk home!"  
  
Ellie thought for a second before realizing she was miles from where she lived, the red head gave Zeke a worried glance, he only shrugged unknowingly in return. The two got into the car, defeat damaging their spirits slightly as the angered brunette started the car, they then quickly fastened their seatbelts as she took off down the street like a madman. 


	6. A Bit Of Light Reading

Author's Note:  
  
Okay people... first off I've been getting a lot of questions concerning where I got the name Evelyn Chase from... well first let me clarify that it was NOT House On Haunted Hill! Evelyn Chase and Evelyn Price are two completely different people, the similarity in names is purely coincidental... I actually got the name Evelyn from The Mummy (I used to have a really big obsession with that movie and Egyptology... don't ask!) that's why her nickname is Evy rather than the standard spelling Evie... cuz in the novel of the Mummy that's how they spell it... (Once again, don't ask! I'm a total geek!) and Chase I just added cuz it sounds good together. And personally I would imagine that Evy would look nothing like Famke Janssen... then again I don't really know what she'd look like, and I created her!  
  
Okay... with that little detail aside lets get back to the story...  
  
I just want everyone to know that things are going to get even more confusing (yes more confusing if you can believe it) because I'm going to be adding the third part to this story very shortly. To make things more clear, this is the third series... and it has three parts to it, the first is Chloe's life, the second is Serena and Nicki's misadventures trying to capture the twelve earthbound spirits, and finally the third is all the stuff you missed out on in between the first and second series (not to mention some other important stuff from the past) presented to you by means of flashback chapters.... got it?  
  
If not just tell me what problems you have with it in a review and I'll do my best to clear things up in another A/N...  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
The Talamasca, London Motherhouse Headquarters  
  
11:43 pm  
  
*  
  
Wilhelmina sat at the long oak table in the middle of the vast library, she was the only one there at that particular hour of the night. She stared downward at the open folders before her, there were two yet she had found one of them tucked away inside the other. She had been rather shocked when the folder had fallen out of the one she had intentionally snuck from the records when no one was looking, the folder she had desired was labeled Rafkin, Daniel B., and the one that was hidden within was labeled Emerson, Amelia M.  
  
Will read then both regardless, and what she discovered had confused her considerably. She even had to do a second sweep of the records to make sure there were no more folders under either name to be found, there wasn't. She sighed to herself as she leaned back in her seat, the wooden chairs in the library had become rather uncomfortable after spending so much time in them without standing. She stood slowly to stretch her aching joins, it was then that she had a stroke of genius, the red head quickly snatched up the two folders and headed out of the library in a rush.  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
His head rested on the soft pillowy pages of the book that was strewn across his small desk as he snored quietly, he had fallen asleep while reading again, no doubt to awake with printers ink stamped across his forehead like that one day back in June.  
  
Suddenly a loud banging noise startled him from his slumber... oh well, it was the dream about Cate Blanchett begging him to marry her in the Eleven Wood again, the one where Haldir was to be his best man... he squinted his eyes as he struggled to open them, the dim lighting of the small room causing his head to throb once he sat upward. He walked towards the door in a dull stroll as he limply lifted his hand to grasp the doorknob, the banging was now accompanied by and impatient and all too familiar female voice.  
  
"Michael!!!" Wilhelmina eagerly shouted at the closed door, finally to her relief the door began to open.  
  
"What is it now!?!" he questioned tiredly, yawning between words, which caused his Welsh accent to sound a bit funny to her ears.  
  
Will only stared at him mutely, it was all she could do to keep from laughing at the way his dark russet hair looked from obviously falling asleep on top of one of his many Tolkien books again.  
  
"What?" he questioned her sheepish expression as her eyes traveled about his disheveled form.  
  
"Oh nothing..." she dismissed, trying to be as polite as possible, besides this wasn't the time for horseplay, she was on a mission! "I need you to do something very important for me..." she then began to explain, her features becoming quite serious.  
  
"What is it?" he hesitantly wondered, the last thing he wanted to hear was bad news, and that is what her face implied, that something bad was coming next.  
  
"I need you to get me something from Pickett's office..." she alerted him gently, giving him her best 'please' look.  
  
"Oh no... I'm not falling for that, no puppy dog eyes for me thanks!" he said sternly, a bit of worry sounding in his voice as he struggled to shut the door on her, but it was no use, her foot was jammed firmly between it and the frame.  
  
"Please!" she begged in a whiny tone of voice, pushing her way past him as she entered his room.  
  
"No, no and no!" he responded surely, tightly folding his arms over his chest.  
  
"How many times have you actually gotten in trouble for doing something I've asked?" she questioned sweetly, trying to act as innocent as possible, hoping he would give in to her.  
  
"Three, I'm not doing it!" he quickly answered with a slight nodded.  
  
"Fine then Shaggy... I'll just tell Pickett about the time you caught his desk on fire!" she threatened, he suddenly unfolded his arms while staring at her in awe.  
  
"You wouldn't! I mean I... he... it was an accident!" he nervously stuttered in defense.  
  
"Oh yes I would, why shouldn't I? And I doubt he'll care if it was an accident or not, that desk cost him almost fourteen thousand pounds!" she narrowed her glance as he now glared at her scornfully.  
  
He stomped his foot in a childish display of anger as he unwillingly agreed.  
  
"Oh bugger! I'll do it!" he spat, the red head grinned ecstatically in return. "What am I even gonna get once I'm in his office anyway?"  
  
"Just a file..." she innocently muttered back. "Just a file that's labeled this..." she then reached out and handed him the small piece of paper that she had been handed earlier that day.  
  
Michael grumbled softly before taking the paper from her, he then looked down at it curiously before reading it out loud.  
  
"Dennis Rafkin?" he mumbled to himself more than her. "Who's Dennis Rafkin?" 


	7. The Bad Day That Keeps Getting Worse

Author's Note:  
  
Did you all see my Lord of the Rings fetish showing a bit in the last chapter? Terribly sorry about that... my geekiness is starting to get the better of me...  
  
*makes note not to let her sheer dorkiness overthrow her storytelling in the future*  
  
I also want to acknowledge that I claim no ownership over the rights to the creation of the Talamasca or anything else related to it that is mentioned, they are completely the property of Anne Rice. And on a related note I don't really know much concerning the Talamasca besides what I have read in the Vampire Chronicles... I'm not a big Mayfair fan so I'm not really all that keen on the order and all that stuff... so just bare with me on all the crap I get wrong or have added, okay?  
  
Okidoky, back to the story...  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
Evelyn placed the plastic laundry basket on top of the dryer, she bent down and began to remove the clothing from the machine, she then leaned back up and set the arm full of fabric into the basket with a sigh.  
  
As she carried the basket back to the bedroom the thought crossed her mind to hire a housekeeper to do all this tiresome work for her, its not like she didn't have the money for it. But then she remembered why she never went through with her idea in the first place, after all it wasn't a very good idea to have someone in the house that Dennis could easily bump into. Oh well, guess she was just stuck with the chores... as always.  
  
She folded the shirts and set them on the bed, she then picked up the gray sweater that her daughter had brought home wringing wet earlier that day, a smile crossed her face at the memory... too bad Dennis hadn't seen the humor in it, he could be such a bore sometimes.  
  
Evy sat down on the end of the bed, still holding the sweater, she started at it for awhile trying to remember all the times she had seen Dennis wear it, and all the times that Chloe had stolen it, it was then that she realized something.  
  
She got up and walked into the living room, sweater still in hand, she found her husband slumped in the same chair she had last saw him in earlier that day when he had come home from picking their daughter up at school. Evelyn watched him for a moment as he slept quietly, his head resting on his arm, which was stretched across the left side of the large chair, she smiled faintly, it was almost a shame she had to wake him.  
  
"Dennis..." she whispered gently, he only whimpered slightly in response.  
  
She then reached out and brushed her hand against his face softly, he stirred beneath her touch and slowly opened his eyes.  
  
"Hey..." he muttered weakly, staring up at her tiredly. "What time is it?"  
  
"Almost eight thirty." She answered, moving towards him slowly, she then carefully sat down on his lap.  
  
He leaned up and kissed her gently, Evy moved her hands up to his face, removing his glasses as their kiss deepened. Once they broke from one another she placed his glasses on the table nearby, she then remembered the reason she had woken him.  
  
"Do you remember this?" she asked suddenly, holding up the gray sweater."  
  
"Uh... its my sweater..." he remarked unsurely, curious as to why she was asking him such an obvious question.  
  
"Do you remember when I first saw you in it?" she then questioned slowly, Dennis only looked up at her blankly, he then gave her an unknowing shrug. "I'll give you a hint... little boy, arrow through his head... also it was the first time I ever heard you scream 'Don't touch me!'" she stated, looking down at him suspiciously, he then realized what she was talking about.  
  
"Oh yeah... this is what I wore the first time we met... at the empty house with Cyrus." He said the man's name as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.  
  
"And then you wore it the night we went with the lawyer to see the house we inherited..." she explained.  
  
Dennis thought back on that night, he then tighten his grip on her waist at the memory of the Jackal clawing her to pieces... he then remembered taking off his sweater and putting it on her, and she was right, it was the same sweater she held now.  
  
"So, what's your point..." he then questioned uneasily.  
  
"How many times have you found this thing missing from the closet?" she then asked, holding up the sweater to punctuate her words, Dennis only shrugged again. "And how many times have you found that Chloe had taken it? I mean she must have been four when she first pulled it off the hanger and wore it around the house... it was like her security blanket!" she then told him, worry sounding in her voice as she rambled to him.  
  
"No it wasn't, that weird dog-thing you got her was!" he disputed.  
  
"That was Courage the Cowardly Dog, Dennis!" Evy sighed with annoyance and threw the sweater on his head as she hopped off of his lap. "But that's not the point..."  
  
"Then what is? I don't get what you're trying to say!" he wondered in a lost tone as he pulled the sweater from over his face.  
  
"Don't you think it's kinda weird that she was attached to that sweater and not any of the other ones?" she worriedly asked as she stood by the chair, her arms folded tightly across her chest.  
  
"No... its just a coincidence, that's all..." he dismissed, standing up from his seat. "What's really wrong, tell me." He then muttered softly, walking over to her with concern.  
  
"I think its time we told her the truth!" Evy announced quietly, Dennis only looked at her blankly, his face becoming even more pale then it already was. "I started to tell her earlier-" she began before he cut her off.  
  
"You what!?!" he shrieked with shock.  
  
"I mean I tried to but..."  
  
"But what?" he demanded to know.  
  
"I couldn't tell her... I mean it's her birthday and all, and things have already been going so badly today..." Evy sadly explained, Dennis' expression softened at the sight of her discontent.  
  
"Look..." he whispered, taking her in his arms. "How bout we both tell her, that way it won't seem so bad..."  
  
"How is that gonna make it seem better?" she wondered remorsefully.  
  
"I don't know... but its worth a shot..." he then looked down at her lovingly, she gazed up at him, a smile then made its way on her lips.  
  
"Okay."  
  
They walked to the shut door to their daughter's room, Evelyn knocked on it gently.  
  
"Chloe?" she asked, no answer.  
  
After knocking several more times they decided to open it, what they saw, or rather didn't see, brought the frown back to Evy's face.  
  
"Oh that's just great!" Dennis whined with annoyance as he and his wife stared at the empty room and the open window, Chloe was gone... again.  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
They stood in line at the club where Chloe had supposedly heard from someone at school say they didn't check for id and gave away alcohol to minors.  
  
"We shouldn't be here..." Ellie warned in a small voice, Chloe only rolled her eyes.  
  
"Oh come on... its my birthday, we never do anything fun anyway!" the brunette stated, the line then began to move forward.  
  
"Will I get the job or not!" they then heard a young woman say in a very agitated voice from outside the line, the three slowly turned towards the small table that had been set up on the corner by the building.  
  
"Yes, yes... you will get crappy job, have lots of babies that will be as annoying as you are and then you will die miserable death, NEXT!" was the reply the older woman gave in the same disdained yet sardonic tone, the young woman angrily got up from the table to leave. "Hey! Five dollars Suzy Homemaker!" the older woman then spat, her foreign accent sounding a bit Russian, or was it Romanian, Chloe couldn't tell.  
  
The young woman threw a crumpled up bill at the woman before stomping off, it was then that the small group was allowed to get a look at the woman who had caused such a disturbance. She was in her late fifties, perhaps early sixties, and had her long black hair pulled back and hidden by the dirty scarf she had tied atop her head, she was the spitting image of an old gypsy fortune teller you would see in an old black and white werewolf movie.  
  
The thought made Chloe laugh slightly as she stood near the group of people who awaited the old woman's guidance, which was idly mixed with those who waited to enter the club. The old woman's head shot up from shuffling her cards once she heard the little laugh, her dark eyes immediately closed in on the brunette.  
  
"I will read the girl!" she snapped loudly to the crowd, her gaze still fixed on Chloe, who only looked around nervously for who she was talking about.  
  
"Me?" she finally asked, pointing at herself unsurely as the old woman continued to stare in her direction.  
  
"Yes you! Who do you think I am talking about?" the woman then retorted, her voice never loosing its scorn and sarcasm.  
  
Chloe reluctantly walked over to the table, glancing around at the others who snickered to themselves.  
  
"Sit, sit!" the old woman then insisted, looking back to her cards as she gathered them into a neat pile and sat them to the side.  
  
Chloe did as she said, sitting down in the flimsy folding chair, she then glanced back at Ellie and Zeke, flashing them a humorous smile before looking back in the gypsy's direction with a straight face.  
  
The old woman reached across the table and grabbed Chloe's right hand, causing the brunette to jump slightly with shock.  
  
"Calm down..." the gypsy sneered, looking down at the girl's palm curiously. "Don't be so much like your father!" she then stated plainly, not even bothering to look up.  
  
"What you mean... like my father? You don't know him!" Chloe answered smartly, looking the woman over suspiciously with disbelief.  
  
The old woman let out a slight laugh, which sent chills down Chloe's spine... the woman was very creepy after all, and the evil laugh didn't help the situation.  
  
"Ah yes... you are a Rafkin alright!" the gypsy chuckled, looking up at the girl with a sick smile.  
  
"How do you know my last name?" Chloe asked with a bit of fear in her voice as she rudely snatched her hand away from her.  
  
The old woman began to laugh even louder to this, the girl's confusion seeming hilarious to her.  
  
"Never in a thousand years did I think I would live to see Dennis Rafkin have a child..." the gypsy joked, cackling between words. "I mean the man can't even bump into to anyone, let alone touch them... and here it is he has clearly done both!" her laughter was like a howl now as Chloe looked her over angrily, not knowing whether to be insulted or feel sorry for the poor woman who was obviously out of her mind.  
  
"You're fucking insane!" the brunette spat, standing up from the table in protest, the woman only continued to chuckle to herself.  
  
"Tell me... does your father still fidget whenever he's around a lot of people?" the gypsy scoffed to the brunette who walked away from her table.  
  
Chloe turned towards the woman, giving her an angry glance before walking around the corner and out of her sight.  
  
"Come on!" she yelled to her two friends as they reclaimed their place in line, the old woman's laughter could still be heard as they paid their cover charge and entered the club.  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
They sat together at a booth near the back of the club, the music pounding in their heads as Ellie nervously looked around, Zeke playing with the droopy sleeves of his jacket while Chloe only sighed to herself drearily.  
  
"So what was that woman on the corner talking about anyway?" Zeke asked her suddenly, his voice raised as she struggled to hear him over the music.  
  
"I don't know..." Chloe lied, deciding not to go into it and upset herself anymore than she already had been. "You know how those con artists and kinda people are..." she dismissed, he only shook his head at her answer.  
  
"We should go... this place worries me..." the red head told them, her voice as loud as it could get, yet they could barely hear her.  
  
"Calm down Ellie, we just got here... I'm gonna get something to drink..." Chloe then announced, standing up and walking away from them carelessly, Ellie only dropped her worried glance to the floor in defeat.  
  
She walked to the bar and ordered a drink, the bartender gave her a curious glance and she was sure he was going to ask for identification, but then he just handed her the full glass and went back to work. Chloe sighed deeply with relief, she then began to sip the alcoholic beverage, wincing once she swallowed it, the liquid burning at her throat as it coursed to her stomach.  
  
"Your first time drinking?" someone then asked her with a slight laugh of amusement, Chloe turned around to see a boy a little older than she was staring at her, a smile stretched across his face.  
  
"No... not really, its just been awhile, that's all..." she stated boldly, trying to keep her composure as he narrowed his stare on her.  
  
"I see..." he answered unsurely, not believing a word she had just said. "I'm Justin..." he then introduced himself.  
  
"Chloe..." she responded with a kind smile, he returned the gesture.  
  
"Hey, gimme a shot of tequila and another of what the lady is having!" he told the bartender coolly, grinning at the brunette the entire time, Chloe blushed before taking another sip at her drink.  
  
"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..." Ellie muttered again, watching Zeke closely as he attempted to stack several sugar cubes on top of one another.  
  
"How do they become cubes? I mean is there some kinda special process for making them square..." he babbled distantly, all of his concentration focused on what he was doing. "I wanna work at the sugar cube factory... see how it really works..." he then added, suddenly the tall stack of cubes he was building fell over and they cascaded to the dirty floor beneath their table.  
  
"One day... I'm sure you will work there Zeke..." the red head answered with a slight sigh of disappointment, she then realized something and began to look around them again. "Hey, where's Chloe?"  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
"Where are we going?" Chloe asked groggily as she gulped down her third glass of alcohol, stumbling along after the boy she had met only minutes ago.  
  
All she really knew so far was that his name was Justin, he was twenty, went to collage nearby and was very cute... well as far as she could tell anyway, her vision was becoming quite blurry.  
  
"Don't worry, its not much further..." he assured her as they passed by several people who were sitting on couches and chairs conversing, they were obviously heading for one of the club's back rooms.  
  
"I should tell my friends where I am... cuz they like to freak out a lot..." she mumbled to him as they entered the dark room, he closed the door behind them.  
  
"Oh... you can tell them in a minute, I'm sure they'll be alright..." Justin assured her, moving closer as he looked her unsteady figure over.  
  
He reached up and gently brushed her hair away from her neck, she struggled to focus her eyes on what was happening when suddenly she felt his lips against her skin.  
  
"What're you doing?" Chloe asked him, her speech slow and tired.  
  
"Its okay, just relax..." he told her, pulling her over to the sofa that was near the wall.  
  
He laid her down on it the best he could, she continued to turn her head, trying to look around and see what was happening, but she couldn't seem to focus on anything.  
  
"Wait..." she murmured in a whisper, her eyes squinting at him as he began to unbutton her shirt.  
  
"Shh..." he hissed impatiently, almost ripping the buttons from her black blouse, once it was completely undone he ran his fingers across her stomach, then up to her shoulders, tracing the straps of her bra.  
  
He smiled cleverly as he leaned over her, running his other hand up her leg, under skirt while kissing the nape of neck eagerly.  
  
"Stop..." she begged quietly, trying to push him away, but it was no use, she was simply too weak to overpower him.  
  
Justin only ignored her plea, his hand now resting on her thigh, his fingers grasping the elastic on her underwear, he then started drag them down her legs when suddenly he felt something tap him on his shoulder.  
  
"What!" he snapped angrily at whoever had interrupted him from his latest conquest, he looked over at them right before the person's fist came in contact with his face.  
  
"Stop means NO, asshole!" Zeke spat at him furiously, rubbing his right hand as Justin crawled across the floor, clutching his face in pain.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" Justin asked him in confusion as he struggled to stand.  
  
Zeke kicked him in the stomach as hard as he could, preventing him from making it to his feet.  
  
"I'm her bodyguard! Now get the hell outa here!" he answered harshly, Justin let out a sharp cough before staggering out of the room as fast as he could. "You okay?" Zeke then asked Chloe as he gently pulled her shirt together, covering her exposed chest.  
  
"Zekey?" she whimpered innocently, trying to see him through her drugged haze.  
  
"Yeah, its me, come on..." he then bent down and lifted her to him, bracing her as they slowly made their way towards the door of the room.  
  
"You guys!" they then heard a panicked female voice call to them, Zeke looked up to see Ellie come running towards them in a frenzy.  
  
"What now?" he asked her, she quickly noticed her almost unconscious best friend hanging from him as she ran up to them.  
  
"The cops are coming... what happened to Chloe?" Ellie alerted him, her voice both worried and confused at the same time.  
  
"I'll explain later, let's go!" he replied, but before they could make it to the door they were stopped by a rather tall figure dressed in black... it was a police officer.  
  
"Good evening kids... what's going on here?" the cop asked un-amused as he looked them over curiously, the sight of the tall boy holding up a half dressed unconscious girl certainly caught his attention.  
  
The police officer was about to question them when Chloe suddenly came to, she leaned up with the help of Zeke and let out a slight gasp before vomiting on the first thing she saw, which unfortunately for her was the cop that now stood in front of them stunned.  
  
"You're all under arrest!" he shouted furiously at the three teenagers who tried their best to suppress the laughter that the sight of him brought.  
  
"Told ya we shouldn't have came here..." was all Ellie could say as she glared at Zeke and Chloe regretfully. 


	8. Oops

February 23, 2001  
  
*  
  
Evelyn lifted the heavy plastic tray with both hands, slowly she began to carry it out of the cramped and busy kitchen into the even more crowded dinning area of the restaurant.  
  
Her wrists began to give way as she struggled to balance the weighty thing and walk at the same time. It was only made of plastic... and she was only carrying two glasses of water and a small basket of bread, why was it so heavy?  
  
The sweat began to bead on her forehead as she maneuvered her way through the labyrinth of waiters and customers, silently praying to god that her strength would hold long enough to sit the tray down on the correct table before spilling the water on the floor.  
  
As she focused her attention on the ground in front of her disaster suddenly struck.  
  
The busboy rushed past her quickly, his arm only grazing hers slightly, but that was all it took. Evelyn swayed to the left, the tray flying up out of her grasp as it tumbled to the carpeted floor in a hushed bang. The glasses of water landed themselves on two nearby patrons, just her luck they were extremely rich and well established with the manager.  
  
"Oops..." was all the overwhelmed brunette could mutter as the entire restaurant seemed to glare at her questioningly, she then began to feel faint.  
  
She slumped to the floor from sheer exhaustion as she desperately tried to fight the urge of throwing up right there and then... that would really get her fired if she wasn't already!  
  
Another waitress came to her aid quickly, gently grabbing her arm and helping her to stand.  
  
"Evy, you alright babe?" Janice asked with worry, her Brooklyn accent shattering the room's awkward silence, the others around them suddenly went back to whatever it was they were doing before the catastrophe.  
  
"Yeah, I just think I've got a stomach flu or something..." Evelyn answered tiredly, now standing upright with the frizzy-haired waitress' assistance.  
  
"And ya came to work? What in Christ's name were ya thinking girl? I would've kept my ass at home!" Janice responded boldly, they both then grew silent at the sight of their boss marching towards them.  
  
"Am I paying you ladies to stand around on a coffee break in the middle of our most hectic time of the day!?!" Mr. James questioned in a not-so-amused tone, his angered gaze then fell on Evy. "And you Ms. Chase, what is your excuse for this display of clumsiness!?!"  
  
"I uh... I..." she began to say, her voice fading in and out at each syllable.  
  
"First you take off from work without even calling, now this!" he continued to rant, referring to the day that she and Dennis had had an 'unexpected visit' from Mr. Moss.  
  
"Yes but that was a family emergency..." Evy managed to muffle before he dismissed her.  
  
"It doesn't matter! One more screw up from you and I'll be forced to-" before he could finish Evelyn suddenly lost her composure and vomited on the small man as he stood in front of her.  
  
Janice let out a loud screech of a laugh as Evy clasped, bracing herself on the tabletop next them, Mr. James just stood stoic still, glancing down at his once expensive suit that was now ruined in shock.  
  
"You're fired!" he shouted at her once he was able to speak again, Evelyn only rested her forehead on the palm of her hand in defeat.  
  
"Here ya go sweetie..." Janice said comfortingly as she handed the brunette a glass of water.  
  
"Thanks." Evy sighed as she sat on the floor of the kitchen wearily, she took the glass from the woman cautiously, careful not to drop it.  
  
"Feelin' any better?"  
  
"You mean besides getting fired for spewing on my boss?" she joked halfheartedly.  
  
"Hey, I would give my entire paycheck just to see that again honey!" Janice commented with a smile.  
  
"I don't know what's wrong with me!" Evelyn mumbled with another sigh. "I mean I never get sick... and even when I do it's not like this!"  
  
"What cha mean?" the waitress asked slightly confused.  
  
"I mean I feel fine all day long then outa nowhere I start puking my guts out... its been like this for over a week now!" she exclaimed tiredly. "Do stomach viruses even last that long?" she then questioned curiously, Janice only shrugged as another waitress listened nearby.  
  
The other waitress walked over to them suddenly, pulling her long dirty blonde hair behind her ears as she tapped Janice on the shoulder to get her attention.  
  
"Hey, you better get out there before its your ass on the line!" the skinny blonde alerted her.  
  
"I'll be back in a sec..." Janice muttered to her friend as she gave the other waitress a glaring look before exiting the kitchen area.  
  
"So..." the blonde waitress said to Evy in a somewhat cocky tone as she stood over her. "How far along are ya?"  
  
Evelyn quickly glanced up at her in confusion.  
  
"Excuse me?" Evy questioned in a lost yet panicked tone of voice, the skinny blonde only rolled her eyes at how naïve the brunette was to what was happening. 


	9. Kleptomania

Author's Note:  
  
Okay, first off let's make some since of what's going on so far...  
  
The chapters that have dates are flashbacks, well except for the first chapters, they were just getting to story started, but from chapter 8 on, if there's a date before the writing, then it's a flashback... got it? See the story takes place in 2018, and everything before then is a flashback... I'm taking way too much time explaining this, aren't I?  
  
Okay, anyway... to answer Dawnie-7's question, no Zeke isn't based on Zeke from the Faculty, in fact I just realized that they do kinda seem alike, weird. If I'd have to, I'd say he's sorta based on Cereal Killer from Hackers and Chip from Serial Mom... he's a mix between the two (as you will see in future chapters), but that's just how I envision him... think what you want...  
  
And to Hekasha, sure I'll be sure and let you in on the 13 Ghosts Cult as soon as I get it up and running, LOL!  
  
Now, there's gonna be a bit of an order to this, and by that I mean in the chapters, I'm gonna try to alternate back and forth in threes, or twos sometimes, its gonna be The Rafkins, Flashback, Serena's Group, The Rafkins, Flashback, Serena's Group... or the flashback after Serena's group, either way you're guaranteed the Rafkins and Serena's bunch in the mix... flashbacks will only come when inspired by what's happening in the storyline.  
  
Enough of this crap, on with the confusion...  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
He crept through the large double doors quietly, trying his best to get in and out as fast as possible. He quickly walked over to the expensive desk in the center of the room, retrieving the keys to the cabinets then headed towards them in a rush. Glancing over his shoulder one last time before using the keys to open the drawer, he thumbed through the many manila folders until finally finding the one he had came for.  
  
Suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps from outside the large office, his heart raced slightly as he snatched the file, shut the drawer and headed out of the room, tossing the keys back onto the desk as if he had never been there at all.  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
"Got what ya asked for... another two for the price of one deal if you can believe it!" Michael announced as he entered his room, folder in hand.  
  
The tiny red head glanced up from where she sat on his bed, half asleep. She quickly reached over and took the file from him, glancing at the label which read Rafkin, Dennis T., she opened it and removed the second file labeled Chase, Evelyn R.  
  
Wilhelmina sighed lightly before she began to read the files, and once she was done the hour was late and she was even more confounded then before.  
  
"This doesn't make any since!" she exclaimed tiredly, Michael glanced over at her curiously as he sat at his desk, still reading the same book he had fallen asleep on earlier.  
  
"What?" he questioned blankly.  
  
"Dennis Rafkin's psychic abilities go far beyond some of the Talamasca's most powerful members, well when it comes to paranormal communication that is..." she alerted him.  
  
"So what's the big deal?" he wondered with a slight shrug.  
  
"There's no documentation of anyone from the order ever meeting with him or following him... and then there's this..." she reached over and picked up the other file that had been placed inside the one she currently held. "I mean here's another psychic that got no recognition whatsoever, how come these people never got a chance to apply themselves here... they obviously could have been useful!" she laid back on the bed, her head aching from too much confusion.  
  
Michael got up from his seat and walked over to the bed, picking up the folders before sitting down on the end of the mattress next to her.  
  
"Well someone was obviously interested in him, why else would there be so much on him?" he then asked while looking the papers over. "And what's this?" he then asked, holding up a small piece of paper with a few word scribbled on it.  
  
Will leaned up slightly and took the paper from him, it was a piece of Rigel Pickett's official stationary, and what was written on it appeared to be instructions. She stared at it for a while, trying to make since out of what it could all possibly mean, then it hit her... someone didn't want Dennis Rafkin and Evelyn Chase to be recognized by the Talamasca, especially Dennis!  
  
Just then a loud knock came at the door, causing them to jump slightly with shock. Michael walked to the entrance of his room and opened the door, a tall man with graying hair stared back at him.  
  
"Pickett would like to have a word with you and miss Townsend... now." The man, which Michael immediately recognized as Pickett's personal assistant, told him sternly.  
  
Will only sat the folders back on the bed before letting out a deep sigh of worry, it looked as though they were both in trouble... again.  
  
*  
  
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*  
  
"So, you've been interested in matters which don't concern you lately, or so I've heard..." Rigel Pickett declared strictly as he paced calmly in front of the seventeen year old girl who stood before him.  
  
They were in his office, alone, while Michael sat impatiently outside the expensive closed doors, awaiting his turn under the guillotine.  
  
"I only looked in some of the files, that's it... its not that big a deal!" Will told him in a defiant manner.  
  
"Yes, but what about the missing files from my room, eh?" he then questioned, sending her a scrupulous look, she only put her head down in silence. "So I see you had poor Mr. Bradshaw sneak into my office yet again!" he then sighed with annoyance.  
  
"How do you know-" the red head began to ask before he angrily cut her off.  
  
"Because I'm psychic you silly girl!" he spat at her with disdain, she shrank back at his words slightly. "And your abilities are not strong enough, and not worth it enough to make me have to put up with your insolence this often!"  
  
She then glared up at him with loathing.  
  
"Do you want to talk insolence Mr. Pickett?" Wilhelmina asked in an all too friendly tone, her expression remaining unamused however. "Alright, then let's talk about this then!" and with that she held up the small piece of paper Michael had found in one of the files.  
  
"Where did you-" he began to ask her in a shocked tone.  
  
"Dennis Rafkin's case file." She stated boldly, cutting him off like he had her before.  
  
Pickett stared at the piece stationary, his stationary, a look of total fear in his pale eyes.  
  
*  
  
*  
  
*  
  
Michael sat on the rather uncomfortable, yet regal looking bench outside Rigel Pickett's office. He stared down at the floor with worry and boredom, this after all had not been his first time in trouble for taking things without permission.  
  
He looked towards the closed door to the office, trying to focus all of his concentration on it as he strained to her what was being said in the room across from where he sat. Just then the doors flew open, startling him as the red haired girl stormed towards him in a blind fury.  
  
"What's going on?" Michael asked her as she stomped away from him.  
  
"I'm leaving, what does it look like!" she shouted back, her anger unintentionally making its way to him.  
  
Michael didn't even think twice about staying around to see Pickett, he ran after the girl, following her to her room.  
  
"What do you mean you're leaving?" he questioned worriedly as he entered her room, closing the door behind him.  
  
"What do you think I mean?" she said, looking up at her from what she was doing, which was loading her clothes into a small suitcase.  
  
"Is Pickett making you leave?" he then asked with concern.  
  
"Pickett has sold his soul... I'm not staying in this place while it's under his rule!" she smarted back while messily folding her clothes.  
  
"What?" Michael was so confused he could barely think straight.  
  
"Look, just trust me, okay... you don't want to be here anymore, things really aren't what they seem!" was all she told him, he just stared at her blankly. 


	10. Reckless

Chloe awoke from her date-rape-drug educed sleep that the courteous Justin had so graciously bestowed upon her. As she struggled to focus her glossy teal eyes she quickly realized what the source of her awakening was.  
  
"Chloe... wake up..." Ellie whispered as she lightly shook the brunette's shoulder.  
  
"What happened?" Chloe groaned tiredly as she glanced around her new surroundings.  
  
"I thought you were dead that's what happened!" the red head fussed.  
  
"Where are we?" Chloe then asked her, looking around the crowded jail cell in confusion.  
  
"Jail thanks to you... did you know Zeke is a big hit with the prostitutes here?" Ellie said, throwing the last bit in there to get the bewildered brunette's attention, it worked.  
  
"What!?!" Chloe exclaimed in shock.  
  
"Yeah... Kikki and Valerie have really taken a liking to him..." Ellie then pointed to where two very underdressed women seemed to be talking to someone in the next cell through the bars.  
  
Chloe shook her head at the thought when suddenly she heard a police officer say her name.  
  
"Rafkin!" the chubby man in uniform announced loudly with little emotion, Chloe quickly looked at him. "Lets go..." he said while opening the barred door. "You too." He then pointed to Ellie.  
  
The officer also unlocked the cell beside theirs where the male inmates where, he quickly reached in and grabbed Zeke by the arm, pulling him away from the two woman he was conversing with on the other side of the bars.  
  
"Come on Romeo..." the cop said as he pulled the gangly boy along. "Trust me son, you don't have enough money for their time..."  
  
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"Oh shit..." Chloe muttered under her breath in dismay once she saw the look on her father's face as the cop led them into the lobby of the police station.  
  
Dennis said nothing as he stared at his daughter's haggard appearance. Chloe refused to make eye contact with him as they left the police station.  
  
Zeke and Ellie sat in the backseat as Chloe gazed out the passenger side window, not even attempting to look over at her father as he drove.  
  
The silver car ground to a halt in front of the two-story expensive looking white house.  
  
"See ya..." Zeke muttered guiltily as he piled out of the car, Ellie waved silently as Chloe only watched him shut the car door and walk towards his house.  
  
Dennis rubbed his eyes while he drove down the small street, the sun was beginning to rise now.  
  
"Call me when you can..." Ellie whispered to the brunette, who only nodded, as she climbed out of the car.  
  
Chloe and Dennis were now alone in the car, fortunately for her sake he still refused to address her presence. He sighed deeply with annoyance as he shut off the car's transmission, she only stared blankly at their house as they sat in the driveway.  
  
Taking a chance, Chloe glanced over at the driver's seat, Dennis only stared down at the steering wheel mutely.  
  
"Why didn't mom come?" was all she said, her voice full of scorn as she stared at him emotionlessly.  
  
Dennis looked up from the steering wheel and glanced over at her, disbelief in his dark teal eyes.  
  
"What?" he asked her in confusion, hoping he had heard her wrong.  
  
Chloe only looked back out the window, coldly refusing to answer his question.  
  
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They entered the house, Chloe dragging along wearily, heading straight for her room. Dennis made his way to the kitchen, where his wife sat with her arms folded tightly across her chest.  
  
"Where is she?" Evelyn asked sternly, Dennis only stared back sheepishly while pointing slowly towards their daughter's room.  
  
"Are you insane?" Evy shouted angrily as she threw open the wooden door to Chloe's room, her daughter only rolled over as she laid tiredly on her bed.  
  
"Wha?" Chloe uttered sleepily as she looked up at her mother's furious form.  
  
"First this thing at school then you sneak out! Now this!" Evy was so upset she could barely think straight. "And the cops said they found drugs in your system?"  
  
"They never tested me..." Chloe disputed weakly as she set upright on the mattress.  
  
"One of the cops said Zeke told them you were given some kind of date rape drug! Can you even imagine what could have happened if he hadn't have been there?" Evelyn asked her in all seriousness, Chloe only looked down at the floor in shame.  
  
"It wasn't that big a deal..." she muttered sadly, trying to sound responsible.  
  
"A big deal? You could have been killed!" Evy spat back in anger. "Do you know how reckless you were behaving?"  
  
"Oh, like you've never done anything reckless before!" Chloe smarted back, folding her arms across her chest.  
  
"I didn't say that..." Evelyn answered calmly, staring at her sympathetically for once.  
  
"All you do is yell at me!" Chloe retorted in angst. "Its not like you care... you haven't even tried to help me!"  
  
"What?" Evy questioned in complete confusion.  
  
"You were never there for me! You were always at book signings and openings!" she snapped, tears now forming in her bloodshot teal eyes.  
  
"Is that what you think?" her mother asked, hurt in her voice. "That I spent more time on the books then with you?" Chloe only stared down at her floor in silence. "The only reason I wrote the goddamn things were so you could have better life! So you could have a future, which you're pissing away everyday!"  
  
"So now it's my fault?" Chloe inquired, looking back up at her in disdain, at that moment Evy swore it was Dennis sitting on the bed, not her daughter.  
  
"No, that's not it..." she sighed tiredly in reply. "Who was the one who took you to soccer practice, and made sure the teachers didn't give you a hard time when you came to class exhausted each morning from no sleep?" she reminded her sincerely.  
  
"Yeah, well dad was the one who stayed home with me every time you stayed out till 3 am at those stupid parties with magazine editors and book critics!" Chloe mumbled back while wiping the tears from her eyes and cheeks.  
  
"And you're giving him a hard time just as much as me... why?" her mother then questioned curiously, sitting down on the bed beside her.  
  
"I don't know... it doesn't matter!" Chloe snapped insecurely, not really knowing what the answer was.  
  
Evelyn only looked her daughter over closely, she was so exhausted from the night she could barely keep her eyes open.  
  
"Get some sleep... we'll talk about this in the morning..." Evy told her as she stood up from the bed and walked over to the door. "Goodnight... and happy birthday." And with that last sentiment she closed the door behind her, leaving Chloe alone to her thoughts.  
  
The weary brunette bent down and pulled off her shoes as she continued to sob quietly to herself, she then laid her head down on her pillow and began to cry herself to sleep.  
  
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"What happened?" Dennis wondered as his wife sadly came towards him.  
  
Evelyn looked up at him miserably in silence, looking him in the eyes as she struggled to fight back her tears.  
  
"I sounded like my mother..." was all she said to him, Dennis only reached out and took her in his arms for support. 


	11. Now What?

April 17, 1994  
  
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Evelyn entered the house, it was almost three in the afternoon and she had just gotten home from school. As she silently made her way towards the stairs, trying to get to her room as fast as she could to call Alex, it was then that she noticed both of her parents sitting in the living room, which was a rare thing... seeing her parents together in the middle of the day.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked cluelessly as she slowly stepped into the living room, her backpack slung over one arm.  
  
"We need to talk." Her mother answered, emotion gone from her usually sweet voice.  
  
"Oh great... what did I do now..." Evy muttered to herself as she unenthusiastically sat down in the large chair beside the couch.  
  
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The courtroom was half empty, all that was present were local drunks who had been arrested for misconduct and prostitutes who were there to argue their case after the arresting officer was overly aggressive with them while being taken into custody.  
  
"Next!" the judge called tiredly as he rubbed his eyes.  
  
"Next is case number 227..." the nearby police officer alerted the judge, who only nodded while picking up the case file.  
  
The lanky boy stepped up to where the officer had pointed, he looked around at the others in the courtroom nervously before glancing back up at the judge.  
  
"Uh, Dennis Rifkin is it?" the old judge asked without even looking away from his paperwork.  
  
"Rafkin..." the boy clarified in a dull tone, sighing tiredly as he did so.  
  
"I see..." was all the judge said in response, he then started in on the case. "You've been arrested for setting up residency in an abandoned house?"  
  
"It wasn't abandoned, it was just boarded up..." Dennis answered listlessly.  
  
"That would be considered abandoned then!" the judge told him sternly. "What's a matter, can't a young guy like you find a decent job in this city?" he then asked, Dennis only rolled his eyes at the question.  
  
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"Your principal called today, he said that many of your teachers have noticed a drop in your quality of work... not to mention your grades." Her mother stated, looking over at her remorsefully.  
  
"So my grades suck... its not that big a deal!" Evelyn said plainly, leaning back in the chair with boredom.  
  
"How exactly do you plan to graduate if you have failing grades? And how do you plan to get into a decent college if you don't even apply!" her mother then wondered, stress and worry now sounding in her voice.  
  
"We've been through this before... I'm not going to college!" Evy sighed with aggravation.  
  
"Because Alexandria isn't, right?" her father asked, speaking up finally, she was beginning to wonder when he would join the interrogation.  
  
Evy only rolled her eyes to his question, not even attempting to answer him.  
  
"Your gym teacher said she caught you smoking under the bleachers again, that makes five times this month..." her mother decided to add. "And last weekend you came home drunk at four in the morning..." the sound of worry was now very evident in her voice.  
  
"Why exactly am I here? Is it because my grades are slipping, or is it because you're worried about my health?" Evy asked them smartly, showing little care for their concern.  
  
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"Why exactly am I here? I mean is there something I'm supposed to do, or not do anymore... 'cause I'm kinda confused." Dennis replied with little respect, the judge narrowed his glance on him.  
  
"You're here because it is illegal to squatter!" the judge snapped back at him. "Now it says on your license that you're 21... I don't see any reason why you can't get a job and find a reasonable place to live, one that hasn't been condemned by the city!" he now tried to reason with the young man before him.  
  
"I see... so is there a fine or something I can pay and get the hell outa here, 'cause this place really creeps the hell outa me!" Dennis responded dryly, staring up at the judge through his black-framed glasses.  
  
"Yes... there is..." the judge said in an awkwardly kind tone, a fake smile stretched across his wrinkled face. "Its $250, which by the way must be paid in full before you leave the court today."  
  
A frown slowly crept onto Dennis' unamused face as he took in what the judge had just told him.  
  
"I don't have that kinda money..." Dennis muttered sheepishly, he was beginning to get scared now.  
  
"I see..." the judge added emotionlessly. "So then I guess you'll have to take the second option, won't you Mr. Rifkin..." he then said with a hint of amusement in his tired voice.  
  
"Its Rafkin!" Dennis snarled back at him in anger, he was at the point where he knew what was coming and didn't care anymore.  
  
"Bailer... please take Mr. RAFKIN into custody!" the judge called to a nearby cop, disdainfully emphasizing the boy's last name to mock him.  
  
"Let's go..." the strong-armed cop ordered as he walked up to Dennis, reaching his muscle-bound arm out to grab hold of the skinny boy.  
  
"Its okay! I can do it myself!" Dennis cried tiredly as he raised his hands in the air, he then began to walk towards the doorway which led out of the courtroom. "Don't touch me!" he said finally, sending one last heated glare towards the now smiling judge.  
  
"Have a nice night squattering in the cell block son!" the old judge sarcastically remarked as the boy exited the room. "Next!"  
  
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"You're 17 years old, that's why!" her mother snapped, glaring at her protectively.  
  
"I'm seventeen and a half damnit, and I'm not aloud to do anything!" Evy shouted in defense.  
  
"As long as you live here you will do what I say, do you understand young lady!" her mother scolded.  
  
"Oh, here it comes... the scripted 'I'm such a good mother' speech!" Evelyn mocked, rolling her eyes again as she folded her arms across her chest.  
  
"Don't make this out to be about me!" Mrs. Chase warned, Evy only looked over at her meanly.  
  
"Then what is this about, really?" she questioned again. "Is it me smoking or my grades?" she asked suspiciously.  
  
"I think its you spending too much time with Alex and not enough time on more important things!" her father spoke up again.  
  
"What!?!" Evy asked in shock, she couldn't believe what she was hearing.  
  
"I think your father is right... you do spend too much time on the phone and not enough time on homework, and that ends today!" her mother alerted her, Evy's jaw was practically on the floor. "From now on you are grounded from talking on the phone or going out with Alex until your grades improve and you finally apply to a college!"  
  
"You're kidding right? You can't actually be forcing me to go to college..." Evelyn muttered in bewilderment as she stared at her parents in disbelief.  
  
"What is wrong with having a future?" her father wondered.  
  
"Yes, what do you have against getting a good education and making a good living for yourself?" her mother added, Evy remained silent as she suppressed her tears of angst. "You know you can't expect us to be there for you forever..." her mother then told her, her tone much calmer now. "We're not always going to be here..."  
  
Evelyn looked up at her mother, tears were now streaming down her face yet she refused to change her angry expression.  
  
"Now go to your room and think about where you want to send your transcripts to..." her father ordered gently, pointing towards the staircase.  
  
Evelyn stood up from the chair and grabbed her backpack, she then slowly walked towards the stairs.  
  
"Oh, and by the way..." her mother added as she left the room. "I took your phone out of your room before you came home, so just remember that you are grounded!" she then advised her.  
  
Evy snuffed her noise as she began to cry harder, she ran up the stairs and slammed the door shut to her room. She sat down her backpack and laid back on her bed as she continued to cry.  
  
"I hate them!" she sobbed into her pillow, covering the pink pillowcase in runny, wet black eye makeup as she did.  
  
Suddenly she heard the sound of the garage door open, she sat up in the bed enough to where she could look out her window. Evy rubbed her eyes as she watched her parents pull out of their driveway, most likely going to the store again... it was then that she remembered her dream from the night before.  
  
"It would serve them right..." she whispered cruelly under her breath as she hugged her pillow to her chest with annoyance.  
  
She then let out a deep sigh... she didn't really mean that, the truth was she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before because of the dream. It was then that she decided to take a nap and sleep the rest of the day away, that would show them, no homework was going to be done tonight, that was for damn sure!  
  
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"Have fun sweetheart!" the older guard mocked as he pushed the jumpy man into the crowded cell, slamming the barred door behind him.  
  
Dennis nervously glanced around his new surroundings, fidgeting fearfully as he eyed the dirty, muscled, and downright scary looking group of men that he was now forced to spend the night with.  
  
He smiled nervously at the group as he stood as far away from them as he could possibly get without squeezing himself between the bars. Suddenly his worst nightmare became reality as one of the men came towards him, he backed up even further as the muscled and tattooed criminal approached him.  
  
"Yo, gotta cigarette twig boy?" the man asked him in a deep and very serious voice.  
  
Dennis looked over at him fearfully as he frantically shook his head no.  
  
"Ya gotta have somethin' then!" the man demanded, Dennis suddenly became even more afraid.  
  
"I don't have anything... I swear!" he fretfully answered, almost shaking violently with fear.  
  
"See the new guy always has to give up somethin', that's just the way it works here!" the man then told him, stepping closer with each word.  
  
Dennis cautiously moved backwards, away from the oncoming threat, he then made the mistake of saying the first tough thing that came to his mind.  
  
"I... I've spent over two years in a mental institution!" he exclaimed, he then heard the sound of 'oohing' and laughter from the group behind the large man before him. "Its true..." he then defended palely. "I have the papers to prove it..." he nodded confidently, he then whispered to himself, "somewhere..."  
  
"Yeah... well I've spent the last two years in prison!" the man growled at him meanly, rage showing in his bloodshot eyes as he now towered over the cowering boy. "Wanna see the papers I got to prove it!?!" he added fiercely.  
  
"Oh shit..." Dennis whined in depression as the man balled his large hands into iron fists.  
  
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Evelyn awoke to the sound of banging, her eyes fluttered open to the loud precession of deliberate bangs, which she immediately recognized as someone beating on her front door. She yawned tiredly as she traipsed down the stairs towards the front door, once she got there she glanced out of the peephole to see two police officers outside.  
  
"What the..." she muttered in confusion as she slowly unlocked the door. "Can I help you?" she asked them weakly as they stood before the now open door.  
  
"Are you the daughter of Miranda and Charles Chase?" one of the cops asked her formally.  
  
"Yes." Was all she said in return, her face now pale and her heart pounding wildly in her chest.  
  
"I'm afraid we have some bad news..." he said remorsefully, Evelyn felt as if her heart had just exploded within her ribcage.  
  
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"Ya got something to say twig boy?" the man teased as he forcefully poked Dennis in the middle of his chest.  
  
"Don't touch me..." Dennis complained apprehensively.  
  
"Oh what? You too good for me to touch you now?" the man snarled in offense, Dennis nervously glanced around for where he could run, but he was trapped in a corner with the muscular convict.  
  
"No..." Dennis shook his head frantically while staring up at the man.  
  
Then it happened, the moment that the other inmates had been anticipating since the conversation had started... the man angrily balled his fist again and lifted in the air, it was now positioned to be aimed directly at Dennis' face.  
  
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"What do you mean the car was destroyed?" Evy asked the cop, she was biting at her bottom lip as she struggled to keep in one piece.  
  
"Like I said, I'm very sorry but the semi hit them head on... there wasn't much of a chance that they would..." he trailed off once he noticed the tears that now streamed down her face.  
  
"Much of a chance that what?" she asked him hysterically, she quickly clasped her hand over he mouth to keep from screaming in pain.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
The man thrust his fist forward just as Dennis slumped to the floor, the man's fist plunged directly into the wall behind them, which was unfortunately made of brick.  
  
"Aahhh! You little piss ant!!!" the man screamed in pain as Dennis scurried to his feet and quickly began to move away from him.  
  
The convict's right hand may have been broken, but his ego and left fist were still ready to fight. He angrily punched Dennis in the stomach, the one blow was all it took to send him sinking to floor breathless.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
Evy fell to the floor, unable to hold back her grief any longer. She cried uncontrollably as the two police officers politely stood in the doorway of the house, not knowing what to do to help her at the moment they remained silent.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
Dennis opened his eyes as he frantically gasped for air, he held his stomach in pain as he laid on the dirty cold floor of the jail cell. He looked over to see his glasses laying almost a foot away from him, they must have fallen off when he fell, he then saw the large foot of the man who hit him. The man cruelly slammed his foot down on Dennis' glasses, shattering the glass lenses and the plastic frames in one mean stomp.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
"I'm sorry!" she screamed madly as she shook on the carpeted floor, tears pouring from her eyes. "I'll never talk to Alex again! I swear!" she then whaled pitifully, hiccupping her cries as she tightly held her stomach in pain.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
Dennis winced as he sat upright, his back leaning against the bars as he stared up at the man in anger.  
  
"That was real mature!" he spat at the convict, all fear gone from his voice as he mocked the man who towered over him.  
  
"What did you say to me you little prick?" the man asked furiously, glaring down at him.  
  
"I mean what are we in fifth grade?" Dennis remarked smartly, referring to his glasses being broken. "Oh... I guess you never made it that far in school, huh?" he hammered the final nail in his own coffin with an ironic smile as he gazed up at the man in annoyance.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
"I'm sorry!" she begged one last time, pleading with no one, yet she refused to give up hope that this was all just another horrible dream and that any moment she would awake to the sound of her mother complaining about how late she was for school.  
  
"It'll be okay miss..." one of the cops assured her as he lightly placed his hand on her shoulder for support.  
  
"Don't touch me!" she shouted back in tears, he quickly withdrew his hand.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
"Don't touch me!" Dennis yelled as the man snatched him up by the collar of his shirt.  
  
He quickly punched the boy in the mouth then released him to sink back to the floor, once he was there the man began to kick him in the chest as hard as he could.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
Evelyn laid on the floor for what seemed like hours, but then again she wasn't counting time anymore. It seemed as if the entire world had stopped spinning, and she was the only one left twirling out of control. She lay in silence, too tired and worn out to cry anymore, too weak to even move.  
  
The police had called her only nearby relatives to come by and stay with her, which meant her aunt and uncle would be arriving soon to make things even worse. Evy shut her eyes tight as she remember the events of the day, she recalled the dream she had had the night before, the argument she had had with her parents only hours ago... and now this, this horrible lie that they were forcing her to believe.  
  
But she knew it wasn't a lie. She was the only one lying here, but she had to lie to herself or else she would go insane.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
Blood poured from his mouth as he gritted his teeth in agony. Dennis silently prayed to himself that he would die soon, its not like he had anything to live for anymore. He had no place to go once they released him from this hellhole, and he had no money to even eat the next day... too bad he had missed dinner here.  
  
He felt as if he were going to throw up, his stomach was pounding and in knots. Now that the angry man with a broken hand had stopped kicking his guts in, Dennis could finally get some sleep... on the cold dirty floor of the county jail.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
April 18, 1994  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
Evelyn awoke to her aunt Janie forcing her to sit up and take some little white pill she was shoving in her face. She took the pill and swallowed it without argument, it didn't matter what it was or what it did, just as long as it shut her mother's rambling sister up for awhile.  
  
She stood in the shower for what felt like days, just standing there, letting the hot water run out as it endlessly poured down on top of her.  
  
No breakfast, she couldn't eat... no talking, she had nothing to say... just cold dead silence, that's all they got from her that bright and sunny spring morning in April.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
"Rafkin!" he heard someone call, by the impatience in their voice it hadn't been the fist time they had called it.  
  
"What..." he groaned tiredly, his entire body aching with every slight movement he made.  
  
"You're free to go, get up!" the guard stated with boredom as he unlocked the jail cell.  
  
Dennis staggered to his feet, wincing in agony as he began to walk towards the now open door. He continued to hold his stomach while stepping out of the cell, he couldn't believe it was over, he was free... and still alive!  
  
"Catch ya around, twig boy!" he heard the familiar voice taunt as the guard slammed the cell door locked.  
  
Dennis turned back towards the bars and peered in at the man who had done this to him, he then smiled kindly while pointing his middle finger up in the air at the man.  
  
"Little prick!" the man snarled venomously, Dennis only shook his head as he walked away from the cell, rubbing his cheek from where he had been punched the night before.  
  
It was over, he had survived... now what? 


	12. What Goes Up

She searched through stacks of messy papers and unrolled scrolls, trying to find everything she would need for the journey ahead. The once wooden desktop was now completely covered in papers, some ancient and tarnished, some crisp and new. She mumbled to herself as she gathered them up and placed them in her satchel, mostly cursing under her breath, cursing what, only she knew.  
  
The sudden knock on the doorframe jarred her violently from her own daze, causing her to jump slightly with shock.  
  
"What do you want?" Serena snapped with spite as she turned towards whoever had knocked.  
  
"I just wanted to talk to you about this..." Nicki replied as she held up the piece of paper she had been given earlier, the list of their destinations in America.  
  
"Oh..." Serena sighed tiredly as she took the list from her. "What about it?"  
  
"Well me and Lydia are somewhat confused as to why the order is so chaotic..." the girl almost feared to bring it up.  
  
"What?" Serena asked in a lost tone.  
  
"Well its just that first we're to go to Pennsylvania then to New Jersey then finally to California just to end up back at Chicago..." Nicki explained in a quite monotonous manner.  
  
"Yeah, yeah... what's your point?" Serena interrupted, trying to hurry the situation along.  
  
"Well wouldn't it be easier to start at one end of the country and work our way to the other?" the girl suggested.  
  
"I don't understand..." Serena scoffed, completely unamused by the girl's sudden interest in everything.  
  
"Like start in New York and catch them across the country till we end up in California, or start in California till we end up in New York... its quite simple it you think about-" she began to explain before she was rudely interrupted.  
  
"No..." Serena almost immediately said once she heard her idea.  
  
"But-" Nicki tried to say.  
  
"No!" Serena screeched angrily, handing the paper back to her. "Those two are last, they're always last!" she then announced sternly, pointing to the last two locations on the list, California and Chicago, Illinois.  
  
"Yes and they could still be last if we start at New York and-" Nicki tried to propose again, but it was no use, Serena's mind was made up.  
  
"We're not messing with the plan! It's been this way since the beginning and we're not fucking it up now!" she shrieked more to herself then the girl before her. "I'm not gonna have a couple of teenagers tell me how to run things... okay?" Nicki only stared at the paper in bewilderment. "Now get out we're leaving soon..." she told her, her voice a bit calmer then before, but she was still on edge.  
  
Nicki only nodded mutely as she left the room, Serena almost slamming the door shut behind her.  
  
"What a bloody waste of time that was..." Nicki muttered to herself as she traipsed away, back to her room to finish packing.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
"So she's coming along then?" Lydia asked unsurely as she looked around the crowded airport lobby.  
  
"That's what I was told..." Nicki answered dully, her arms folded across her chest tightly as they awaited the red head's arrival.  
  
Wilhelmina entered the airport, the small boy following close behind her as they searched for her friend.  
  
"Hey!" Will called out once she spotted Nicki, the brunette turned towards her voice instantly.  
  
"Oh hi... we were wondering what had happened to you..." Nicki began to say, she stopped speaking once her hazel eyes landed on the boy to her right.  
  
"Who's this?" Lydia questioned blankly, pointing towards him curiously.  
  
"Oh... this is a friend of mine from the order..." Will told them. "Michael Bradshaw, meet Nicolette Morris and Lydia..." the red head paused at the black haired girl's introduction. "Sorry luv, what's you last name again?"  
  
"Marks..." Lydia muttered a bit downhearted at the realization of how forgettable she was.  
  
"Oh, yeah... sorry bout that... got a lot on my mind right now..." Will yammered anxiously as they walked towards the boarding ramp.  
  
"Um..." Michael quickly grabbed Wilhelmina's arm as he mumbled something to her as privately as he could. "I don't really like planes..." he alerted her, a bit of embarrassment in his voice.  
  
"Don't worry, you'll do fine!" the red head insisted.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
"How high does it go? Do you know how far off the ground we get?" he nervously asked as he constantly changed his sitting position in the chair by the window.  
  
"Not very far up... I mean it's perfectly safe..." Nicki tried to convince him as she sat beside the panicking boy she had only met a few minutes ago.  
  
"Yes but anything could go wrong and we could just go plummeting to the earth..." he pessimistically implied, Lydia rolled her eyes as she sat on the other side of Nicki in the isle seat.  
  
Suddenly the flight attendant began to talk over the speakers, preparing the passengers for take off. Michael then became even more nervous.  
  
"I have this terrible fear of heights..." he muttered to Nicki palely, all color now gone from his sweating face.  
  
"Well just close the window..." the brunette suggested, the boy did as she said, he then began to quickly tap his fingertips against the armrest of his seat.  
  
"No... this isn't gonna work..." Michael announced uneasily. "See if I'm right beside the window and its closed I'll just keep wondering what's going on outside it and eventually I'm going to open it..." he rambled anxiously to the two girls to his right.  
  
"I'll switch you seats..." Lydia sighed as she unfastened her seatbelt. "We get to spend a the next three hours sitting beside Adrian Monk, isn't that lovely?" she whispered to Nicki as she maneuvered her way towards the window seat, Nicki only smiled at her slightly.  
  
#  
  
#  
  
#  
  
Once they had landed in New York and exited the plane, the somewhat large group crowded in the airport lobby awaiting further instruction from their fearless leader.  
  
"Okay everyone lets get into the vans and start heading towards Pennsylvania!" Serena demanded with distraction, not even noticing the two new members of her team.  
  
"And now the insanity starts..." Nicki muttered to Lydia as the four teenagers slowly followed the group towards the exits. 


	13. Must Come Down

They watched her as she walked alone, down that dark yet glistening tunnel... a pathway to hell no doubt. Her body shook for no reason but its own fear as their pale and bloodless faces glared angrily in her direction.

How she had gotten here she couldn't remember, but she knew it was where she belonged, always it had been where she had belonged. It was her first memory, this place, its shimmering walls and eerie noises... and him.

How could she forget him? He was the first face she ever saw, the first sound she ever heard, his howling cries and jagged teeth. His broken claws ripping at her very soul as she cried in the darkness to no avail.

Chloe screamed into the empty darkness that was her own room, she wiped the sweat from her forehead before slowly reaching over and turning the noisy alarm clock beside her bed off. She glanced around the dark room as if in search of anything new or dangerous she might have brought back with her from her nightmare... but she was alone, as usual.

"Shit..." Chloe sighed tiredly, as she lay back down.

She was so sure her dreams had stopped, left her for good this time, but she had been wrong, again. For years she had had the same nightmares, glass walls, hollow faces, spinning steel... and him. She could never forget his miserable howls and glowing eyes, she had been so sure he was gone from her sleep, but now he was back.

* * *

Chloe slowly made her way into the kitchen, the first sight she saw was her mother turning off the coffee maker.

"Good morning." Evelyn said in a tired and serious voice, Chloe remained silent.

Evy handed her a cup of coffee before turning back to the counter to retrieve something.

"Here..." she then muttered, handing Chloe the small orange bottle. "Take your medicine." She insisted, Chloe only looked her over skeptically.

"I can't remember... I have alcohol in my system..." she tired to get out of taking it, her mother wasn't so amused by it though.

"Trust me, if that line were true your father would be dead by now..." Evy explained. "Besides, you didn't seem to care about your health last night, now did you?"

Chloe sent her a dark look before opening the bottle and removing a single white pill, Evy watched her closely as she swallowed it without the help of anything to drink. Chloe handed her the pill bottle back before walking away.

"I need a ride to school..." she told her mother scornfully while leaving the kitchen.

Evelyn sighed tiredly at her daughter's tone, she then sat the bottle, which read Zoloft, back onto the kitchen counter before leaving the room.

* * *

Ellie sat nervously at her desk, looking from Zeke to the door of the classroom, Chloe was late.

"Do you think she's grounded?" the red head asked her friend in a whisper.

"She's not five Elle..." Zeke told her, still sulking from their experience in jail the night before.

Just then the brunette walked into homeroom, she quickly sat down beside her two friends.

"We were worried about you..." Ellie told her, Chloe only sighed tiredly.

"This week sucks so far!" Chloe smarted.

"And it isn't even over yet..." Zeke reminded her.

"I even have therapy today to make things worse..." Chloe complained.

"I'm the one that needs therapy after last night!" Zeke exclaimed, unfortunately it was a bit too loud from the small classroom.

"Quite Mr. Lawrence!" the teacher snapped, Zeke only slid further down into his seat.

* * *

"So... how are things at school?" Chloe's therapist, Ms. Thurman asked.

"Fine I guess..." Chloe muttered with little care.

"Your mother tells me your grades last year weren't as high as they should be."

"You mean as high as she'd like them to be..." Chloe snapped, Ms. Thurman nodded in understanding.

"How have you been sleeping lately, your counselor at school said it was getting better, is that true?" she wondered, Chloe hesitated to answer.

"It was better, but now..." she trailed off.

"But now its like before?" her therapist finished her sentence for her, Chloe only nodded mutely in response.

"I had a nightmare last night... Normally it would be no big thing, but it wasn't your typical nightmare..." she explained, Ms. Thurman narrowed her gaze in contemplation.

"But it was a typical nightmare for you." her therapist noted, Chloe realized what she meant and nodded again.

"I just thought they were over... I mean I've been having them forever it seems... I just thought the pills had stopped them finally." Chloe then sighed sadly. "Guess I was wrong... as usual."

"Obviously something's been troubling you lately... something to bring these dreams back." Ms. Thurman wondered, trying to delve deeper into Chloe's thoughts.

"There was this woman..." Chloe said finally after a long pause, her therapist gestured for her to continue. "She was outside this club last night... she knew things, about my family that she couldn't have known..." Chloe thought back on the crazy old gypsy woman, was she as crazy as she had seemed?

"What are you saying?" Ms. Thurman asked confused.

"I don't know... Maybe I'm just tired, that's all..." she then dismissed, trying to clear her mind of all these confusing thoughts. "I just need to get more sleep... that's all." she lied to her therapist and herself, the truth was sleep was the last thing Chloe needed right now.


	14. Suzie Q

October 19, 2006

-

"Look mommy!" she called to her mother from the floor where she worked on her current masterpiece, a Crayola portrait of her only friend.

"That's nice sweetie..." her mother distantly regarded her, not even looking as she grabbed her husband's arm and naggingly led him out of the room.

Once they were relocated to the kitchen he forcefully snatched his arm away from her.

"What is wrong with you!?!" she demanded to know while shutting the kitchen door, he only rolled his eyes in annoyance to her question.

"Oh come on! You know I'm right! All you do is go to work, come home, work on that stupid book and then go to sleep, you don't pay attention to me or Chloe anymore!" Dennis snapped back angrily, he had had enough of his wife avoiding him.

"I can't believe you're mad at me for feeding us! I do all the damn work around here, I don't have time to do anything else!" Evy replied heatedly.

"But you can write whenever you do get time..." he reminded her boldly, she glared back at him in disbelief.

"I'm sorry I'm trying to earn a living and take care of our daughter... I don't see you doing a damn thing... last time you helped out it was to go sign up for food stamps!" she then retorted, Dennis shook his head at her words.

"So it's my fault for being a freak... great..." he snarled ungratefully, she sighed tiredly at him.

"All I'm saying is I can't help but feel that you're using me as a crutch, you never have to leave the house if I go out and do everything." Evelyn explained honestly.

"Someone has to watch Chloe..." he made excuses, as he always did.

"She'll be going to school soon, I mean she's four..." she stated, Dennis only looked at her blankly.

"Really? I could have sworn she was five..." he reminded his wife spitefully.

"You know what I mean." Evy muttered with guilt, she had been too busy to remember her own age let alone her daughter's.

"See what I mean, you don't even spend enough time with us to know shit like that!" he spat, she turned towards him annoyed with his nagging.

"Spend time with us? Don't you mean spend time with you?" she answered smartly, looking him over suspiciously.

"Don't turn this into being about sex!" he warned her, she rolled her eyes at him.

Chloe drug the pink crayon over the white paper repeatedly, her brunette curls falling in her tiny face as she intently perfected her drawing. Once satisfied with its completion, she grabbed her picture and headed towards the kitchen door, ignoring the muffled sounds of arguing which lay behind it.

"Mommy, daddy, look!" Chloe exclaimed, bursting through the unlocked kitchen door.

Evelyn and Dennis immediately stopped speaking once they noticed their daughter's presence.

"Let me see what you've drawn, sweetie." her mother asked as gently as possible, as if the softness of her tone would erase the shouting of only a few moments ago.

Dennis let out a bewildered sigh once he realized their argument had ended, once again with no resolved outcome. He was about to walk away when he noticed the expression on his wife's face, she looked as if she had stopped breathing completely.

"What's wrong?" Dennis asked with concern.

"Baby, who did you draw in this picture?" Evy muttered to Chloe in a zombie like daze, all the while never taking her startled eyes off the drawing in her hand.

"That's Suzie!" the five year old announced happily to her mother. "She's a princess, see her crown!" Chloe then pointed up at the scribbled tiara she had drawn.

"This is your imaginary friend... the one you've had for the past three months?" Evy questioned in almost a gasp.

"What is it?" Dennis asked frantically while moving closer to his wife.

Evelyn turned the piece of paper around to where her husband could see the picture their daughter had drawn for them. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the stick figure drawing. It was of a woman in a pink prom dress, a man's tie around her neck, hands bound behind her stick form and a gray tiara on top of her brunette head.

"Oh my god." was all Dennis could say in response.

"Isn't Suzie pretty, daddy?" Chloe asked him innocently, Dennis fell to his knees to be at eye level with her.

"Honey, do you see Suzie right now?" Dennis asked her, she only gave him a cautious look.

"Am I in trouble?" she asked carefully, not sure why her parents where acting the way they were.

"No, sweetie." Evelyn joined in, getting on her knees as well beside her husband. "We just want to know where Suzie is... can you see her anywhere?" she asked softly while brushing the curls from in front of her daughter's face.

Chloe gave them both a curious look before silently pointing her finger towards the living room. Both Dennis and Evelyn slowly turned to look into the living room area of the apartment, but all they could see was an empty room.

"Baby, are you sure you see her in there?" Evy asked worriedly.

"She's standing right there, by the couch." Chloe answered her honestly. "Can't you see her, mommy?"

Dennis stood, then slowly began to walk towards the living room. He almost made it to the couch before the inevitable happened.

"Ahhh!" he shrieked in pain, falling to the carpeted floor as he clutched his head in agony. "She's here.... she's here!" he moaning in distress as his wife rushed to his side.

"Dennis, oh god!" Evelyn exclaimed while helping him back into the kitchen.

Chloe stood in the same spot she had been in for the past five minutes, by the kitchen door. She watched in confusion as her mother helped her father into one of the nearby rickety kitchen chairs.

"I'll get you some water!" Evy announced, dashing towards the sink as Dennis took the pill bottle from his pocket.

Shakily he tried to open the small plastic container, but he only failed miserably. Evy sat the glass of water in front of him on the table, she then took the bottle from his severely shaking hands.

"Damned childproof caps!" Dennis mumbled to himself as his wife easily popped the cap from the bottle, she then dispensed two while pills which he swallowed without a moment's hesitance.

There was a long pause of silence as all three of them waited for him to calm. Once his hands stopped shaking and his breathing seemed to go back to normal Evelyn decided to speak.

"We have to move."

-

-

-

**Author's Note:**

Okay... I just want to say that I am sorry for the major delay, and personally I have no idea when I will update again... if I ever even do!

I am trying my very best to get back in the mood of writing this story just to finish it for everyone who still reads it, but I must confess it has been quite the difficult task for me to do. I can barely reread this last story without cringing at how terrible and immature my writing skills were... and it really makes me never want to write again let alone on any story I started all those years ago!

But as I have said, I am trying my best to get back in the spirit... and I hope everyone can forgive me for my absences with this story and my others that are still unfinished.

Lastly I would like to say that I posted this chapter now because I have just had it sitting on my computer for the past 2 and a half years gathering the hypothetical dust, so I decided to finally post it on . I hope it is enough for now, and holds a promise of more to come with this fic... if I can just get myself in gear enough to keep writing it.

Thanks to everyone who still actually reads my stories.

~ Jenna


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